74 HARNESSING THE EARTHWORM 



soil, deep subsoil plowing was not possible. I well remember 

 how the plows would scoot along on top of the almost surface 

 limestone layer. However, the vast earthworm population pene- 

 trated deeply into the subsoil and constantly brought up parent 

 mineral material to combine with the surface soil, which made 

 up for the lack of deep soil. My grandfather often remarked 

 that in all his sixty years of farming he had never had a crop 

 failure. His corn was the finest in all the country and was 

 eagerly sought for seed. He also originated a sweet corn, of a 

 delicious flavor, which was very highly esteemed throughout that 

 section and was known at that time as "Sheffield corn." The 

 ears were very uniform and evenly filled to the end, and I re- 

 member that the cob of this special corn was hardly larger than 

 a carpenter's lead pencil. My grandfather never sold this corn, 

 but reserved it to give to friends who came from far and wide 

 for the prized seed and even wrote to him from distant points 

 for seed. 



Now looking back through the long vista of years to the 

 method practiced on my grandfather's farm, in the light of my 

 own experience as well as the experience of a host of others, 

 I am struck by the reflection that here was a simple farmer, 

 working without any specialized knowledge of earthworms to 

 begin with, long before Charles Darwin's famous book on The 

 Formation of Vegetable Mould appeared; and yet, in an in- 

 tensely practical way, utilizing all that Darwin later revealed in 

 his great book, but with the exception that Darwin never sug- 

 gested the "harnessing of the earthworm" for intensive human 

 use. Darwin's classic study only emphasized the importance of 

 the work of the earthworm in nature, with no practical applica- 

 tion to the personal agricultural problems of man. 



Before ending this narrative of my grandfather's earthworm 

 farm, I must mention the orchard, the garden, and the fence 

 rows. The fence rows throughout the farm were planted to a 

 great variety of fruit trees, which were allowed to develop from 

 seedlings. Particularly do I remember the cherry trees, some 



